It is necessary for communication using an IEEE802.11 wireless LAN to set, in a device, wireless parameters including a communication channel, network identifier (SSID), encryption scheme, encryption key, authentication scheme, and authentication key. Normally, such wireless parameters are set by using the user interface of a device. However, this work is cumbersome. It is particularly difficult to input the character string of, for example, a network identifier or encryption key to a device except a personal computer (to be referred to as a PC hereinafter), such as a digital camera or printer.
In recent years, easy wireless parameter setting techniques have been proposed. For example, wireless parameter setting methods using portable storage media have been proposed (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-013718, U.S. Pre-Granted Publication No. 2005/0272371 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-7351), U.S. Pre-Granted Publication No. 2005/0015467 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-229872), and U.S. Pre-Granted Publication No. 2005/0043019 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-096146)).
Furthermore, a system has been proposed in which a management apparatus for managing wireless parameters to be provided to a wireless communication apparatus connects to a base station via a network (U.S. Pre-Granted Publication No. 2005/0054329 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-86583)).
In such a system in which a management apparatus and a base station are connected to each other via a network, it is regarded that wireless parameter setting processing is executed by transmitting wireless parameters managed by the management apparatus to a wireless communication apparatus via the base station.
If a plurality of management apparatuses exist on a network, however, it is necessary to determine a management apparatus with which wireless parameter setting processing is performed.